Further Reading

The announcement was made at the Television Critics Association (TCA), a recurring event at which television networks present their slate of programming to advertisers, the press, and partners. In a Picard-themed panel at the event, the show's cast and showrunner talked about what viewers can expect from the series, which returns to a character who has not appeared on screen since the film Star Trek: Nemesis way back in 2002.

Executive Producer Akiva Goldsman said we can expect to see some of the social relevance that the Star Trek franchise has been known for. Quoted in Deadline, he said:

The marginalization of others, not being open-hearted or seeing with empathetic eyes, this seems to be a pervasive problem we all saw as ripe for healing... Star Trek does its bit to heal social ills.

Also, series star Patrick Stewart indicated that fans should expect to see familiar characters from The Next Generation era in the series, even beyond those already revealed in trailers to date. "It is my hope that, whenever the series wraps, we will have encountered all the principal actors from Next Generation," he said.

The renewal was made possible in part by expanded tax credits in the state of California by the California Film Commission. Former Governor Jerry Brown oversaw a rethink of that program that, among other things, resulted in an expansion to $330 million of available credits. Season two of Picard secured $20.45 million of this funding, compared to $15.6 million for the first season in the prior year.

The first season of Star Trek: Picard will premiere on CBS All Access on January 23, 2020. Episodes will be released in a weekly cadence.

Share this story

Samuel Axon
Based in Chicago, Samuel is the Senior Reviews Editor at Ars Technica, where he covers Apple products, displays, hardware and software for developers and creative professionals, and more. He is a reformed media executive who has been writing about technology for 10 years at Ars Technica, Engadget, Mashable, PC World, and many others. He is also a hobbyist iOS and indie game developer. Emailsamuel.axon@arstechnica.com

224 Reader Comments

..$20 million is about 4 episodes budget and while they are shooting there all the cast and crew are spending in that area.

All government local and national pay subsidies whether for TV shows or films because they are months of investment in the local areas businesses.

Seems reasonable to me for Cali. Now Georgia and their film program, OTOH, is a bit of a stretch considering their political leanings. Given some of their recent legislation on women's issues, glad to see Cali clawing back some of this work.Back on topic - Brent Spiner has previously discussed reprising Data. His hesitance was the effort needed to keep that static appearance of age. Given how the rest of the crew is aging around him (Data), that could be the fodder for a few good episodes of philosophical questions for Data to work through. Culminating in .... age progression abilities?

Well Data also has the advantage, of having a new body built for him. ( a new actor) and the new body has new quirks he has to get used to.

I'll never understand the anger and lengths that people will go to avoid paying to stream entertainment that they want to see that costs literally what you would blow at the Circle K on snacks while half drunk on a Friday night. My brother is like this; he'll show me all the lengths he has gone to so he doesn't pay a Netflix subscription and then we'll go out and blow about $80 each on booze in one night.

Anger at cable, I can understand. It's very expensive and mostly commercials. CBS all access is an order of magnitude less cost than cable, there are no commercials, you can watch it when you want, and there is some other good stuff on there too besides Star Trek.

Your brother obviously enjoys going out drinking with you that much more than he thinks he would enjoy watching Picard. I'd like to watch Picard myself, but there are an awful lot of other TV shows that I'd also like to watch that don't require signing up for more streaming services. I don't even know if I'll enjoy Picard so it's an easy decision to make.

It's amazing that the same people supposedly claiming that the 1% is over privileged and need to be taxed more are the same ones giving tax breaks to the rich and over taxing us commoners. They don't practice what the preach..their talking points are just for political gain.

California has had more Republican and conservative governors than Texas.

Why don't you look up facts instead of spewing lies based on fake news.

I would note that the real power lies in the legislature, where the laws are made. The California legislature has had a Democrat majority since 1970.

Whatever the political party of the governor, the legislature controls the laws and budgets.

One, the rate has dropped by 2 percentage since 2015 in response to state-level policies. Two, the tax rate has little to do with the supplemental poverty rate (the big percentage quoted). Housing prices, however, have an outsized effect. This is something both parties have struggled with over time and none of this is relevant to Picardtrek.

It's amazing that the same people supposedly claiming that the 1% is over privileged and need to be taxed more are the same ones giving tax breaks to the rich and over taxing us commoners. They don't practice what the preach..their talking points are just for political gain.

California has had more Republican and conservative governors than Texas.

Why don't you look up facts instead of spewing lies based on fake news.

I would note that the real power lies in the legislature, where the laws are made. The California legislature has had a Democrat majority since 1970.

Whatever the political party of the governor, the legislature controls the laws and budgets.

You say that but the federal government hasn't worked that way since CLinton.

I'll never understand the anger and lengths that people will go to avoid paying to stream entertainment that they want to see that costs literally what you would blow at the Circle K on snacks while half drunk on a Friday night. My brother is like this; he'll show me all the lengths he has gone to so he doesn't pay a Netflix subscription and then we'll go out and blow about $80 each on booze in one night.

Anger at cable, I can understand. It's very expensive and mostly commercials. CBS all access is an order of magnitude less cost than cable, there are no commercials, you can watch it when you want, and there is some other good stuff on there too besides Star Trek.

I don't have issue with a subscription -- I have issue with a subscription for ONE thing which I may or may not like.

It's the same reason I almost never go to movies...I don't want to pay a bunch of money and leave half way thru because I don't like it. I don't feel like it's worth the high price they are charging for all the other BS I don't want.

Same reason I canned cable.

Also when you add up a $10 subscription for this, $10 sub for that, $10 sub for this other -- soon it costs as much or more than cable did with the same problem. $10/mo for a single show or channel is way too expensive. I have Netflix and Amazon Prime both of which keep getting more expensive for less...I'm not getting Disney+ because it's cheaper for me to get a few clearance DVDs a month from the $5&Under bin and build my own forever-collection.

Also, not everyone is hooked on expensive coffee and snacks or whatever (I assume that's what you reference Circle K? I think that's a gas station...like here we have WaWa or Sheetz). And if I spend $100 on alcohol in an entire year that's a huge amount...

He was vindicated by one of his own vehement beliefs about an older, wiser, battle-damaged Jean-Luc: the idealized future presented by the series should be left in the past. “I explained to them all those elements of Next Generation which belong in Next Generation, and why I didn’t want to go near them again,”

“In a way, the world of Next Generation had been too perfect and too protected,” Stewart added. “It was the Enterprise. It was a safe world of respect and communication and care and, sometimes, fun. [Picard] was me responding to the world of Brexit and Trump and feeling, ‘Why hasn’t the Federation changed? Why hasn’t Starfleet changed?’ Maybe they’re not as reliable and trustworthy as we all thought.”

While I'd like another STTNG, I'm just not sure it would ever work in 2020. Though the trailers to date don't land a thousand miles off the STTNG mark, it's clearly going to be a more grounded experience.

Now, back to ST Discovery - I really hope the new Picard ship's crew have actual speaking parts of greater than 10 seconds and we remember all their names after an episode or two. Discovery had next to zero scope for fleshing out the non-core characters - one of the major downsides of focusing primarily on a handful of characters. I can't remember many of their names even now after two seasons!

I cannot think of of any TV show I've ever wanted to watch more than this.

But,... All Access can fuck right off. I'm not doing it, even for the show I most want to watch.

I also like the irony of "All Access" being a payed service of a broadcast television network, given that traditional "broadcasting" CASTS signals over a BROAD area such that the most people have access to the signals.

I've got too many things to occupy my time these days. But if I were younger, I'd take this as an opportunity to sharpen my pirating skills.

It's amazing that the same people supposedly claiming that the 1% is over privileged and need to be taxed more are the same ones giving tax breaks to the rich and over taxing us commoners. They don't practice what the preach..their talking points are just for political gain.

California has had more Republican and conservative governors than Texas.

Why don't you look up facts instead of spewing lies based on fake news.

I would note that the real power lies in the legislature, where the laws are made. The California legislature has had a Democrat majority since 1970.

Whatever the political party of the governor, the legislature controls the laws and budgets.

You say that but the federal government hasn't worked that way since CLinton.

We're talking about California not the federal government. Two different entities.

“In a way, the world of Next Generation had been too perfect and too protected,” Stewart added. “It was the Enterprise. It was a safe world of respect and communication and care and, sometimes, fun. [Picard] was me responding to the world of Brexit and Trump and feeling, ‘Why hasn’t the Federation changed? Why hasn’t Starfleet changed?’ Maybe they’re not as reliable and trustworthy as we all thought.”

Those points were already somehow addressed by DS9, which I always thought ahead of its time.

While I loved TNG, and I think it has overall stronger characters and individual episodes, the setting and issues tackled by DS9 always resonated more with me.

I'll never understand the anger and lengths that people will go to avoid paying to stream entertainment that they want to see that costs literally what you would blow at the Circle K on snacks while half drunk on a Friday night. My brother is like this; he'll show me all the lengths he has gone to so he doesn't pay a Netflix subscription and then we'll go out and blow about $80 each on booze in one night.

Anger at cable, I can understand. It's very expensive and mostly commercials. CBS all access is an order of magnitude less cost than cable, there are no commercials, you can watch it when you want, and there is some other good stuff on there too besides Star Trek.

I don't have issue with a subscription -- I have issue with a subscription for ONE thing which I may or may not like.

It's the same reason I almost never go to movies...I don't want to pay a bunch of money and leave half way thru because I don't like it. I don't feel like it's worth the high price they are charging for all the other BS I don't want.

Same reason I canned cable.

Also when you add up a $10 subscription for this, $10 sub for that, $10 sub for this other -- soon it costs as much or more than cable did with the same problem. $10/mo for a single show or channel is way too expensive. I have Netflix and Amazon Prime both of which keep getting more expensive for less...I'm not getting Disney+ because it's cheaper for me to get a few clearance DVDs a month from the $5&Under bin and build my own forever-collection.

Also, not everyone is hooked on expensive coffee and snacks or whatever (I assume that's what you reference Circle K? I think that's a gas station...like here we have WaWa or Sheetz). And if I spend $100 on alcohol in an entire year that's a huge amount...

Here is the trick. only subscribe when you want. i got HBO Now for 2 months in 2019 and 2 months in 2018 when I watched what I wanted I ended it. In 2020 I will get it for 1 month and binge what I want to watch and cancel it.

Disney+ I am keeping. I have a 1 year old who will be watching non stop diseny for the next 5 years.

I am considering killing off netflix as I haven't watched it in 3 weeks.

pick a month when your show has been released completely binge watch it, cancel your sub.

I will reserve judgement till after I see this. I am hoping the early reports on the show are generaly wrong.

Having said that if the early reports are true in regard to the direction of this show, its going to suck. Reports being that Sir Patrick wants to go very vocal politcal statement. If true Rodenberry would have hated it.

Yes trek was always had something to say.. but it was always done in a timeless way, with the #1 message being in the future we have learned to work together and as a society grown up. If the reports of the federation being regressed by a hate mongering anti Romulan imagration leader are true... then this is not trek.

Fingers crossed that Picard is more TNG (lead by example hopefulness) and not look we now say F*** every second episode or so disco trek. TNG message of future humans geting it mostly right is what we need right now. Trek has done the moral issues at the core of the federation (future human society) before with stories like the maquis... but never has the Federation been shown to be fully on board with xeniphobia or other issues. Reports are that is where Picard is going... and if true its going to be a trainwreck.

I cannot think of of any TV show I've ever wanted to watch more than this.

But,... All Access can fuck right off. I'm not doing it, even for the show I most want to watch.

I also like the irony of "All Access" being a payed service of a broadcast television network, given that traditional "broadcasting" CASTS signals over a BROAD area such that the most people have access to the signals.

I've got too many things to occupy my time these days. But if I were younger, I'd take this as an opportunity to sharpen my pirating skills.

I cancelled it, signed up for Disney+, CBS AA, Sling, already had Netflix. I pay approx. $55 for all that, and I have the commercial less versions. Totally worth it. For now.

Well, yeah, but most of us ditched cable a decade or more ago, so it's not really cable vs. streaming, it's 1-2 streaming services vs. 5.

"most of us ditched cable a decade or more ago"

I sincerely doubt that.

In 2017 61% of American young adults where stream only. In 2018 33 million people in the US canceled their cable subscriptions. 2019 just under 40 million canceled. Projections put cable cancelations at 45 million this year and perhaps as high as 50 in 2021.

44% of Americans in 2019 subscribe to cable TV. So Cable is far from dead... still its pretty fair to say its dying.

Second season:. On a star freighter, Wil Wheaton guest stars as an alien in the mess haul, playing some future looking board game. Picard sees his strategy, and counters. The fate of humanity is on the line.- Wheaton is playing the son of Q. (That Voyager episode)

The loser will either be greated with a facepalm, or the phrase "shut up Wil".

Really nice to read that Sir Stewart is interested in revisiting all the principal cast during the series...

I mean, I want a new story in the more 'cerebral' ST style... but I also want some CLOSURE on what happened to everybody! Did Geordi ever get with Leah Brahms? Where's Worf? Did Crusher become a captain of one of those ball starships? Is Guinan still running a bar on Federation flagships?

I don't want this to be a reunion show, but it's been frustrating that the future of these characters was just left up in the air for so long.

Damnit! Give me closure!

Given Hollywood's track record on remakes, reboots, and sequels, I think it might be best to just let sleeping dogs lie. Followups rarely exceed fan expectations. The best we can really hope for is some fan service in the form of nostalgia and call-backs. At worst, it will ruin fans' memories of these characters by leaving a bad taste in their mouths, similarly to how the ending of Mass Effect 3 ruined an otherwise awesome franchise and assortment of characters.

TNG had its time. I loved the characters and optimistic take on the future. Picard's dedication to peace, diplomacy, and liberal values made him my personal role model. I only wish more people followed his example.

DS9’s Sisko would be great to see due to his and Picard’s beef. Maybe Sisko got over Locutus’ responsibility for killing his wife? Maybe not?

I would love to see this, Avery Brooks is like, kind of a nutbag now though so I dunno how that would work out.

I'm curious how you've come to this conclusion since Brooks is a notoriously private person and rarely gives interviews. The few public appearances Brooks has made over the years have painted him not as a nutbag, but simply a person that cares little for pretense and chooses to live in the moment. I'd hardly consider that insane. In fact, I'd argue more people should probably carry themselves this way.

That said, Brooks would probably pass on portraying Sisko again simply because, as he's stated in the past, he doesn't feel there's anything left to say with regard to Star Trek. Which is a perfectly understandable position for him to take.

I cannot think of of any TV show I've ever wanted to watch more than this.

But,... All Access can fuck right off. I'm not doing it, even for the show I most want to watch.

I also like the irony of "All Access" being a payed service of a broadcast television network, given that traditional "broadcasting" CASTS signals over a BROAD area such that the most people have access to the signals.

I've got too many things to occupy my time these days. But if I were younger, I'd take this as an opportunity to sharpen my pirating skills.

I cancelled it, signed up for Disney+, CBS AA, Sling, already had Netflix. I pay approx. $55 for all that, and I have the commercial less versions. Totally worth it. For now.

Well, yeah, but most of us ditched cable a decade or more ago, so it's not really cable vs. streaming, it's 1-2 streaming services vs. 5.

"most of us ditched cable a decade or more ago"

I sincerely doubt that.

In 2017 61% of American young adults where stream only. In 2018 33 million people in the US canceled their cable subscriptions. 2019 just under 40 million canceled. Projections put cable cancelations at 45 million this year and perhaps as high as 50 in 2021.

44% of Americans in 2019 subscribe to cable TV. So Cable is far from dead... still its pretty fair to say its dying.

Sure. My objection was to his point that "most people" ditched cable circa 2009. That's just not true. It's not even today. That's all. Cable needs to die. The problem is going to be that the cable companies are going to want to make up that revenue, and since most of them are regional monopolies they are just going to jack up internet access, becasue there isn't any real* competition in most places.

*Shitty up to 40Mbps isn't real competition, becasue it's not 40 unless you live next door to the CO.

..$20 million is about 4 episodes budget and while they are shooting there all the cast and crew are spending in that area.

All government local and national pay subsidies whether for TV shows or films because they are months of investment in the local areas businesses.

Seems reasonable to me for Cali. Now Georgia and their film program, OTOH, is a bit of a stretch considering their political leanings. Given some of their recent legislation on women's issues, glad to see Cali clawing back some of this work.Back on topic - Brent Spiner has previously discussed reprising Data. His hesitance was the effort needed to keep that static appearance of age. Given how the rest of the crew is aging around him (Data), that could be the fodder for a few good episodes of philosophical questions for Data to work through. Culminating in .... age progression abilities?

Well Data also has the advantage, of having a new body built for him. ( a new actor) and the new body has new quirks he has to get used to.

Although that would beg the question, how does a computer chip have to get used to a new body? Granted, it may make for a few good episodes. This is the kind of writing I don't want though. Ill thought out writing to make a funny moment, or fill a plot hole. So JJ.

When I moved my I7 and graphics card, etc. in to a new computer case, it is not like it had to get used to it!

Turns out Netflix is finally getting the Star Trek Disco DVDs so I assume the same would be true for Picard. Would be better if they'd get the damn streaming show but hey, it's something. I've never given up on the DVD service for exactly that reason: too much of a pain running around finding shows here and there. Most of them still end up on DVD anyway.

I cannot think of of any TV show I've ever wanted to watch more than this.

But,... All Access can fuck right off. I'm not doing it, even for the show I most want to watch.

I also like the irony of "All Access" being a payed service of a broadcast television network, given that traditional "broadcasting" CASTS signals over a BROAD area such that the most people have access to the signals.

I've got too many things to occupy my time these days. But if I were younger, I'd take this as an opportunity to sharpen my pirating skills.

Yeah, this is the issue for me. Except for when I was a kid, I've never had cable. And I've not owned a TV in over twenty years. I'm not a sports fan, so that's a big factor in not giving a shit about cable. Also, I simply found cable to have always been too expensive, as Craig observes! Now, I do have a badass gaming rig with a 32-inch 1440 VA LG monitor and no data caps from my ISP; so I get all my movies and shows and news etc. from a zillion sources on the Internet. For movies and other shows, first it was Hulu and Crackle (when they were free). And there are numerous other nefarious sites that offer up movies and TV shows for free--streaming or download. And then there' were torre... oh,... never mind. All this to say, now I subscribe to Netflix, and only Netflix; and not being a big TV kinda guy, Netflix is more than I could have ever wished for. I don't want to be seduced into other services. In this case I'm a little pissed off because it's a BROADCASTING network that owns the service. I don't think I'd have my panties in such a bunch if it wasn't a broadcasting network.

Am hoping they get back to TNG's focus on Roddenberrys philosophy. Have heard the new series will depict a bleaker, isolationist Federation.

Roddenberry would be alarmed with the Trumpian/Boris Johnson isolationism going on and could see them exploring that as well as other recent troubling trends like nationalistic superiority, xenophobia and subtly politicized racial/religious supremacy such as essentially treating anyone not a WASP (or other XYZ ideology) as a second class citizen. Could be interesting and hope they apply Roddennberry approach to social challenges. But need to be careful not to be preachy about it.

Is that the philosophy with skimpily clad women and orgies? That one? Let's not lionize Roddenberry eh? Star Trek had some great values, but folks like DC Fontana are as much or more than responsible for that as Gene was.

I will reserve judgement till after I see this. I am hoping the early reports on the show are generaly wrong.

Having said that if the early reports are true in regard to the direction of this show, its going to suck. Reports being that Sir Patrick wants to go very vocal politcal statement. If true Rodenberry would have hated it.

Yes trek was always had something to say.. but it was always done in a timeless way, with the #1 message being in the future we have learned to work together and as a society grown up. If the reports of the federation being regressed by a hate mongering anti Romulan imagration leader are true... then this is not trek.

Fingers crossed that Picard is more TNG (lead by example hopefulness) and not look we now say F*** every second episode or so disco trek. TNG message of future humans geting it mostly right is what we need right now. Trek has done the moral issues at the core of the federation (future human society) before with stories like the maquis... but never has the Federation been shown to be fully on board with xeniphobia or other issues. Reports are that is where Picard is going... and if true its going to be a trainwreck.

Gonna say it, TOS came out in a different time. There were strong censors from the network that severely limited what they could do with the show. Check out some of the interviews or historical books on Trek, the line was something the writers wanted to push much harder than they were allowed to at the time. Sci-Fi works well for getting away with challenging views and beliefs and address uncomfortable issues because "aliens", but even that only ha so much leeway. Were it not for meddling from above we may have gotten an actual Garak/Bashir romance for example. Trek has always been as vocal as it could be, and never as vocal as it wanted to be, it is in the modern era that the show can finally reach its utmost potential as a voice for change.

I cannot think of of any TV show I've ever wanted to watch more than this.

But,... All Access can fuck right off. I'm not doing it, even for the show I most want to watch.

I also like the irony of "All Access" being a payed service of a broadcast television network, given that traditional "broadcasting" CASTS signals over a BROAD area such that the most people have access to the signals.

I've got too many things to occupy my time these days. But if I were younger, I'd take this as an opportunity to sharpen my pirating skills.

I cancelled it, signed up for Disney+, CBS AA, Sling, already had Netflix. I pay approx. $55 for all that, and I have the commercial less versions. Totally worth it. For now.

Yeah, fuck cable.

My girlfriend has cable,... no HBO, no Cinemax, just basic cable, with 175 channels of shit to choose from. Not long ago, we were watching some Cops-like show (you know, "Bad boys, bad boys, watcha gonna do..."), and I got frustrated at how short each segment was between commercials. So, I timed the segments and counted commercials: the actual show segments were about 6.5 to 7 minute long,and there were 16 to 18 commercials. Fuck that.

Discovery had next to zero scope for fleshing out the non-core characters - one of the major downsides of focusing primarily on a handful of characters. I can't remember many of their names even now after two seasons!

This was one of the problems I had with Discovery, and one of the reasons why I gave up on it (other than the general absurdity of it all). Who are the bridge crew? What's the deal with the crewmember who looks like a crash test dummy? The crewmember with metal implants in her face? Who's the CMO? Who's flying the ship?

When Discovery first came on, we broke down for a subscription, and got the "limited commercial" one since we were only going to be watching one show on it. It took literally one episode of endless, endless commercials for "Young Sheldon" before we upped to ad-free.

We have a theory that Young Sheldon was only produced to frustrate people into paying for the ad-free tier.

DS9’s Sisko would be great to see due to his and Picard’s beef. Maybe Sisko got over Locutus’ responsibility for killing his wife? Maybe not?

Spoilers for a 20-year-old show I guess, but

Spoiler: show

didn't Sisko die at the end of DS9? or become a prophet or something?

It was basically the same ending as Babylon 5.

Spoiler: show

He became a space angel.

All of which is irrelevant, as Sisko got over Picard/Locutus' actions in the DS9 pilot episode.

Spoiler: show

In the pilotr, Sisko was in the wormhole with the Prophets, trying to explain linear time to them. The Prophets kept pointing out that they couldn't understand him because Sisko continued to live in the moment of his wife's death at Wolf 359. He had to let that go and move on in order to help the Prophets understand linear existence. And to free himself from his past.

I will reserve judgement till after I see this. I am hoping the early reports on the show are generaly wrong.

Having said that if the early reports are true in regard to the direction of this show, its going to suck. Reports being that Sir Patrick wants to go very vocal politcal statement. If true Rodenberry would have hated it.

Yes trek was always had something to say.. but it was always done in a timeless way, with the #1 message being in the future we have learned to work together and as a society grown up. If the reports of the federation being regressed by a hate mongering anti Romulan imagration leader are true... then this is not trek.

Fingers crossed that Picard is more TNG (lead by example hopefulness) and not look we now say F*** every second episode or so disco trek. TNG message of future humans geting it mostly right is what we need right now. Trek has done the moral issues at the core of the federation (future human society) before with stories like the maquis... but never has the Federation been shown to be fully on board with xeniphobia or other issues. Reports are that is where Picard is going... and if true its going to be a trainwreck.

Gonna say it, TOS came out in a different time. There were strong censors from the network that severely limited what they could do with the show. Check out some of the interviews or historical books on Trek, the line was something the writers wanted to push much harder than they were allowed to at the time. Sci-Fi works well for getting away with challenging views and beliefs and address uncomfortable issues because "aliens", but even that only ha so much leeway. Were it not for meddling from above we may have gotten an actual Garak/Bashir romance for example. Trek has always been as vocal as it could be, and never as vocal as it wanted to be, it is in the modern era that the show can finally reach its utmost potential as a voice for change.

Science fiction owes its origins to political discourse and commentary. Zemyatin, a Russian fiction writer wrote about politics in "We" in order to be able to discuss and comment without directly pointing.

Star Trek and hopefully now with Picard has continued that tradition. And when people decry its use, my alarm bells go off. If you can't even comment in science fiction, where are we as a society?

I will reserve judgement till after I see this. I am hoping the early reports on the show are generaly wrong.

Having said that if the early reports are true in regard to the direction of this show, its going to suck. Reports being that Sir Patrick wants to go very vocal politcal statement. If true Rodenberry would have hated it.

Yes trek was always had something to say.. but it was always done in a timeless way, with the #1 message being in the future we have learned to work together and as a society grown up. If the reports of the federation being regressed by a hate mongering anti Romulan imagration leader are true... then this is not trek.

Fingers crossed that Picard is more TNG (lead by example hopefulness) and not look we now say F*** every second episode or so disco trek. TNG message of future humans geting it mostly right is what we need right now. Trek has done the moral issues at the core of the federation (future human society) before with stories like the maquis... but never has the Federation been shown to be fully on board with xeniphobia or other issues. Reports are that is where Picard is going... and if true its going to be a trainwreck.

Gonna say it, TOS came out in a different time. There were strong censors from the network that severely limited what they could do with the show. Check out some of the interviews or historical books on Trek, the line was something the writers wanted to push much harder than they were allowed to at the time. Sci-Fi works well for getting away with challenging views and beliefs and address uncomfortable issues because "aliens", but even that only ha so much leeway. Were it not for meddling from above we may have gotten an actual Garak/Bashir romance for example. Trek has always been as vocal as it could be, and never as vocal as it wanted to be, it is in the modern era that the show can finally reach its utmost potential as a voice for change.

Science fiction owes its origins to political discourse and commentary. Zemyatin, a Russian fiction writer wrote about politics in "We" in order to be able to discuss and comment without directly pointing.

Star Trek and hopefully now with Picard has continued that tradition. And when people decry its use, my alarm bells go off. If you can't even comment in science fiction, where are we as a society?

Discovery had next to zero scope for fleshing out the non-core characters - one of the major downsides of focusing primarily on a handful of characters. I can't remember many of their names even now after two seasons!

This was one of the problems I had with Discovery, and one of the reasons why I gave up on it (other than the general absurdity of it all). Who are the bridge crew? What's the deal with the crewmember who looks like a crash test dummy? The crewmember with metal implants in her face? Who's the CMO? Who's flying the ship?

The crew member with implants was injured in (and received the implants after) the initial conflict with the Klingons while serving on the Shenzou, the back story for the crash test dummy was covered in season two and she was a cyborg who was originally human but seriously injured in a shuttle crash with her fiance who died in the same crash. CMO was originally Dr. Culber. All of this apart from Airiam (the dummy) was clear in the first couple of episodes.

I hope the idea of limited series Star Trek runs takes off. I'd love to see a Captain Sulu series. It's about time Takei got his chance. Or maybe a "West Wing" take on the ST universe.

In Voyager, they mentioned that while the Federation was 75 years way, it was implied at least once that the Federation had long-range exploration ships that were only few decades away from them. Let's see a series set on a ship where they really did go where no man has gone before, and still haven't turned back. It would bring back a lot of Star Trek's imagination, and remove a lot of the crutches/corners writers have written themselves into over the past few decades.

This.We had TOS, and then they time jumped for TNG, but then they never do that again. Enterprise was he next decent one with a time jump backwards, but why is it so difficult to simply do another time jump with brand new everything? It’s like the original concept of exploration has gone.

Okay you do a 100 year time skip after Nemesis (or Picard) and then what? the gamma and delta quadrants where what DS9 and Voyager focused on one controlled by the Dominion and the other by a number of species but a big part is Borg space (Voyager ruined the Borg by overuse!).

Do you do another level of speed? maybe slipstream or transwarp and zip across the galaxy?

Or do you focus more on little used species that are hostile to the federation in the Alpha and Beta quadrants more on the Breen, Gorn and Tholians? (Which would be a good thing)

Since going anywhere you want runs up to the problem of borders.

Or intergalactic?

It's not a universe being guided by a person who grew up as the world went from biplanes to WW2 monoplanes and jets to jet airliners and the space race and saw that rapid technological evolution anymore.

It would be guided by people to who an airliner is just an airliner, where space travel stalled and in-some cases both have gone backwards.

Retcon the whole nine yards?

Someone figures out a way to stabilize the omega particles (molecules? Whatever) from Voyager enough to use them to destabilize the entire galaxy, causing massive instabilities in planets and stars. Warp drives and transporters don't work (and, since transporters share a tech base with replicators, neither do replicators). Planets have to fall back to cruder tech, which they can figure out how to produce.

A century later the subspace distortions or whatever are settling enough that a few of the luckier planets are starting to move about again, albeit far more slowly than before, and reform the Federation.

Then wipe off TOS, and the reason for so many planets having basically humans is because they're literally lost colonies in various states of technological regression. Ditto the odd vulcanoids and such. Tech is anachronistic because you're dealing with people who know warp theory, but are hazy on how to actually manufacture an integrated microprocessor (much less the more advanced systems in ST).

Q pops in occasionally and snarks about how much better things used to be.

Isn't this basically Andromeda? Except war turns back the clock, not technobabble.

Hadn't thought about it since I lost interest not long after Wolfe left, but I can see the parallels. (Andromeda started out great, but seemed like it just started meandering along.)

A shift in the creative team will do that. Early Andromeda was great. Then it's pretty clear people that didn't understand it took over.

Gonna say it, TOS came out in a different time. There were strong censors from the network that severely limited what they could do with the show. Check out some of the interviews or historical books on Trek, the line was something the writers wanted to push much harder than they were allowed to at the time. Sci-Fi works well for getting away with challenging views and beliefs and address uncomfortable issues because "aliens", but even that only ha so much leeway. Were it not for meddling from above we may have gotten an actual Garak/Bashir romance for example. Trek has always been as vocal as it could be, and never as vocal as it wanted to be, it is in the modern era that the show can finally reach its utmost potential as a voice for change.

TOS also had the advantage that it was a series of standalone morality plays dressed up as an action adventure show.

The modern obsession with everything being heavily serialized makes it hard to tell one off stories without them either being relegated to a minor subplot or having their messages diluted by having to support the series-spanning plot. DS9 just about threaded the needle here. But that still had the luxury of not having to tie everything in with everything else.

Gonna say it, TOS came out in a different time. There were strong censors from the network that severely limited what they could do with the show. Check out some of the interviews or historical books on Trek, the line was something the writers wanted to push much harder than they were allowed to at the time. Sci-Fi works well for getting away with challenging views and beliefs and address uncomfortable issues because "aliens", but even that only ha so much leeway. Were it not for meddling from above we may have gotten an actual Garak/Bashir romance for example. Trek has always been as vocal as it could be, and never as vocal as it wanted to be, it is in the modern era that the show can finally reach its utmost potential as a voice for change.

TOS also had the advantage that is was a series of standalone morality plays dressed up as an action adventure show.

The modern obsession with everything being heavily serialized makes it hard to tell one off stories without them either being relegated to a minor subplot or having their messages diluted by having to support the series-spanning plot. DS9 just about threaded the needle here. But that still had the luxury of not having to tie everything in with everything else.

The Orville still does the standalone episode thing. I love it for it.

And yeah DS9 benefited from Voyager being far from home. You basically couldn't tie them together, at least not until they gained communication with the Federation. Voyager could have benefited too but boy did it get ridiculous - suddenly finding a way to communicate is one of the least ridiculous things they did.

Second season:. On a star freighter, Wil Wheaton guest stars as an alien in the mess haul, playing some future looking board game. Picard counters his strategy with a conclusive swipe of defeat. Then comes the next famous line... "Shut up Wil"

Perhaps an idea, not sure if it's terrible or not, would be to have Wheaton as Q's son. I mean he would fit the profile.

He doesn't need to be a Q. Wesley became a Traveler (or at least went off with the Traveler) during season 7 of TNG (episode "Journey's End") so it would be perfectly plausible for him to have been traveling and only just recently returned for a visit to the Federation and his old captain.

Second season:. On a star freighter, Wil Wheaton guest stars as an alien in the mess haul, playing some future looking board game. Picard counters his strategy with a conclusive swipe of defeat. Then comes the next famous line... "Shut up Wil"

Perhaps an idea, not sure if it's terrible or not, would be to have Wheaton as Q's son. I mean he would fit the profile.

He doesn't need to be a Q. Wesley became a Traveler (or at least went off with the Traveler) during season 7 of TNG (episode "Journey's End") so it would be perfectly plausible for him to have been traveling and only just recently returned for a visit to the Federation and his old captain.

Gonna say it, TOS came out in a different time. There were strong censors from the network that severely limited what they could do with the show. Check out some of the interviews or historical books on Trek, the line was something the writers wanted to push much harder than they were allowed to at the time. Sci-Fi works well for getting away with challenging views and beliefs and address uncomfortable issues because "aliens", but even that only ha so much leeway. Were it not for meddling from above we may have gotten an actual Garak/Bashir romance for example. Trek has always been as vocal as it could be, and never as vocal as it wanted to be, it is in the modern era that the show can finally reach its utmost potential as a voice for change.

TOS also had the advantage that is was a series of standalone morality plays dressed up as an action adventure show.

The modern obsession with everything being heavily serialized makes it hard to tell one off stories without them either being relegated to a minor subplot or having their messages diluted by having to support the series-spanning plot. DS9 just about threaded the needle here. But that still had the luxury of not having to tie everything in with everything else.

I would say there isn't an obsession with heavily serialized on the supply side, it just turns out those are better stories in general and more discerning consumers are voting their eyeballs. From the production / supply side they certainly prefer the lower cost and easier writing involved in non-serial or weekly release productions which hide many writing and directing sins.

Regarding a weekly morality play, we're maybe past peak PC and tolerance and well into Karl Popper paradox territory. The only niche to explore further is retelling ideals against selfishness and self enrichment since those lessons never stick. The Expanse seems to have this covered in long term plot arcs. As for unserialized sci-fi, Black Mirror has been extremely successful and has some interesting takes on the morality play angle. But effort of that quality is going to be low volume.

For everyone complaining about subscribing to CBS, I found an alternative for Discovery. I went on a business trip to Malaysia and there it is on Netflix, so I downloaded the season to my computer using the Netflix app and watched it on the long flights back home.

So, spend $1500 or so on plane tickets, rent a hotel, spend a few days flying to the other side of the world and back and you can avoid the couple of Taco Bell meals worth of money that you'd pay CBS to watch it here. You're welcome.

Or you could just pay for entertainment. If you want to dance, you have to pay the band.

I'm happy to pay for Star Trek. My problem is with the distribution model. By paying for CBS All Access I'm supporting the fragmentation and walling-off of the streaming market.

By analogy, I love cocaine and I'm delighted to pay for it, but I don't want to support the local gang's anti-consumer, monopolistic distribution model.